View Single Post
  #17   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 31-01-2014, 18:45
AutoBotAM AutoBotAM is offline
Registered User
AKA: Christian Reese
FRC #2077 (Laser Robotics (Laserbots))
Team Role: Programmer
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 34
AutoBotAM is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: CAN Jaguar: could longer CAN cables cause problems?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz View Post
Auto,
You should remake terminations every year. If you are following the instructions and crimped a plug onto the resistor leads, the connection is not gas tight and likely deteriorated over the year or two since you made it. terminating in the CAN side of the RS232 cable is the recommended practice. If you didn't change the baud rate, I don't think the Jaguars can do that by themselves.
A deteriorating resistor connection sounds like it would cause the issues we've been having. One of our mentors from Rockwell said that putting the resistor on the serial side would possibly prevent signal reflection from occurring. I will mention that it is recommended to do it the other way around, or we will at least save moving it as a last resort. Just out of curiosity, why is there an advantage to terminating at the CAN side vs. terminating at the serial side? Should signal reflection be an issue either way?

About remaking the terminators, do we only need to replace the deteriorated CAN crimp connector? Or do we need to replace the resistor as well? For the RS232 cable, should we need to get a new CAN cable for it?

EDIT:
zbrozek, while using the oscilloscope, is there a way to tell if there's termination failure due to a deteriorated CAN crimp connection? Is there a way to tell how bad the deterioration is? It'd be nice to estimate the lifetimes of our terminators and whether they're "expired".
__________________
"Mecanum drivetrains, like every other, have advantages and disadvantages, but some of the disadvantages being discussed here are overstated and/or misinformation." -buchanan

Last edited by AutoBotAM : 31-01-2014 at 19:05. Reason: Just read zbrozek's last post